It would still be hard to start anywhere other than The Daily as we have been following the story regarding its release for some weeks. What we hadn’t read anywhere, and therefore didn't fully realise, was that whilst February 2 saw the official launch, that was only for America. Any potential UK audience will have to wait a little longer. Reception of The Daily was mixed; some positive reviews, and some not quite so enthusiastic.We were absorbed this week by a blog posting from UK supplier M Partners. They have highlighted a recent Andrew Tribute article from PrintWeek which itself examines a US study looking at print volumes in the analogue v. digital debate. The conclusion is that just 3% of print by volume is produced by digital printing equipment, suggesting that there is plenty of life still in traditional production techniques.
We turn again to PrintWeek and its Product of the Week feature which this week focuses on Proofstream, a recently released and very cost effective soft-proofing solution. The two page feature in PrintWeek certainly does the product justice, and highlights its affordability by offering three alternative solutions (in the printed version).Heidelberg’s digital future seems to be a topic that is attracting great interest from the UK’s printing magazines, and The Print Business has added its take on the story of where big H sees the digital printing market. It’s an interesting standpoint being adopted by the German print giant, which happens to fit all of the product that it currently has in its range!
Tablet talk is due an extended slot this week, with a number of potential big players getting closer to market. Motorola’s Xoom product is getting a lot of attention, and the LG G-Slate catches the imagination with its 3D boast. Dell is never going to be far away from the conversation with its Streak, though a seven inch model still, we believe, has its drawbacks. Two big Android announcements this week will move the market forward for sure, with Android’s Honeycomb version looking to close the gap further on iPad, and the web-based release of Market Place (about time!) doing the same.An interesting Lifehacker infographic attempts to draw comparisons between some of the leading tablet players, including the Motorola, Dell, and Blackberry PlayBook, along with the iPad of course! For us here at PIND two major issues still separate the players: first, size; seven inches is just not suitable for a tablet in our opinion. It’s just a big phone. If it’s a portable smart phone that you want, iPhone is great, and many Android variants are catching up. The other major difference, we believe, is iTunes, which accesses the App Store. The range of approved, virus free software modules that are available for the iPad is second to none, and everybody else is simply playing catch up, and will be doing so for quite a while. One final note of interest talks about the current crop of alternative products, but also highlights the number of returns of the Samsung Galaxy from unhappy purchasers. We believe that this says a lot about both of the above points!
QR codes keep making the news, with Time magazine incorporating them into its billboard advertising in order to get noticed and get passers-by to participate.Finally, do keep checking back to see what will be featured in our next edition, PIND 42. Details of new stories will be added to this text page during the course of the week. We are expecting to move our offices this coming week [didn’t happen this week!], so PIND 42 it might take us a little longer than usual to post this next edition.
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